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They Think It's All Over
They Think It's All Over was a comedy panel game about the world of sport. Broadcast BBC Radio 5: 21 February 1992 – 2 January 1994 BBC1: 14 September 1995 – 9 June 2006 Packagers Talkback (1995–2005) Talkback Thames (2006) Hosts Des Lynam (1992–1994) Nick Hancock (1995–2004) Lee Mack (2005–2006) Team Captains David Gower (1995–2003) Gary Lineker (1995–2003) Phil Tufnell (2003–2004) David Seaman (2003–2004) Ian Wright (2004–2006) Boris Becker (2005–2006) Regular Panelists Rory McGrath (1995–2006) Lee Hurst (1995-1997) Jonathan Ross (1999–2005) Sean Lock (2006) Synopsis The show was originally presented by comedian Nick Hancock. Ex-England football team captain Gary Lineker and ex-England cricket team captain David Gower were team captains from 1995 until they announced their retirement from the show in 2003. They were replaced as team captains by ex-England football goalkeeper David Seaman and ex-England cricketer Phil Tufnell. Former footballer Ian Wright took over from David Seaman in autumn 2004. From October 2005, Boris Becker replaced Tufnell and Lee Mack took over from Hancock as host. Occasionally, a team captain was unable to appear on the show due to other commitments so guest captains were drafted in. Six times World Snooker Champion Steve Davis was a regular choice as guest captain, while Matthew Pinsent, Mark Lawrenson, Mick McCarthy, Sam Torrance, Steve Backley, Sharron Davies, Linford Christie and Michael Johnson also appeared in this role. Additionally, Wright was a guest captain before becoming a permanent team captain. Each team also had a regular panellist. For the team which was originally captained by Gary Lineker this was Rory McGrath for the show's entire run. David Gower was originally teamed up with Lee Hurst. Hurst left the show in 1997 (although he made a reappearance in 2004 on David Seaman's team) and was replaced for the next two series by a rotating line-up of comedians – Jonathan Ross, Jo Brand, Alan Davies, Julian Clary and Phill Jupitus. Despite regularly admitting to having limited sporting knowledge, Ross became the permanent panellist until leaving the show in 2006, and was replaced by Sean Lock for the World Cup and summer sports special editions. The third member of each team varied from week to week, and would typically be a notable sportsperson, broadcaster or comedian. The show was originally produced for BBC Radio 5, where it was hosted by Des Lynam. The devisers, Simon Bullivant and Bill Matthews, started work on a TV version in 1993 but it was two years before it made it to air. Lynam did record a pilot in early 1994 but decided not to do the already commissioned series, which was then put on hold. In 1999 and 2001, as part of the BBC's Comic Relief broadcasts, one-off special programmes were made called Have I Got Buzzcocks All Over. They combined elements of the show with Have I Got News for You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, with Angus Deayton as host. In 2002 and 2004, as part of the BBC's Sport Relief broadcasts, one-off special programmes were made called They Think It's All A Question of Sport. They combined elements of the show with A Question of Sport, with Stephen Fry as host. Kenneth Wolstenholme was unhappy with the use of the phrase for the title of the show. He wrote in his autobiography that he had contacted the BBC to find out what relevance the title had to his most famous line, uttered 30 years earlier. However, when the show was first commissioned, he did accept a fee to re-record his famous commentary for the opening titles, as the original was unusable. Rounds Throughout the series, the rounds varied each week. Examples include: *'Excuses' – The teams were shown a clip of a sportsperson or a team, and asked what excuse they gave for a sporting or personal misdemeanour. Examples included Tommy Docherty explaining that Scotland lost 7–0 in the 1954 World Cup to Uruguay because "they were shattered just standing for the National Anthem", and Scottish tennis player Andy Murray claimed that he vomited on the court at the US Open in 2005 because he'd been drinking an isotonic drink to stop him from cramping, but he drank too much too quickly. On a special edition video-only episode of No Holds Barred, Gary's team was asked for Tommy Docherty's excuse for Manchester United's infamous relegation of 1973–74, with Lineker's answer "He wanted to bring pleasure to millions?". Another edition of the excuses round saw Manchester United fans blame Rod Stewart for costing their team the 1991-92 League title to Leeds United by ruining their Old Trafford pitch at a concert in the pre-season delaying vital pitch maintenance. *'Celebrations' – The teams were shown a clip of a sportsperson celebrating in a fanciful way, and asked what the celebration was in aid of. Examples included Arsenal striker Thierry Henry celebrating a goal by recreating the Budweiser "Whassup?" advert, and Manchester United midfielder Lee Sharpe celebrating a goal by recreating a pose of his boyhood hero Elvis Presley. *'Sporting Bluff' – The teams were given three statements about a sportsperson and had to guess which one was true. *'What's Going On?' – The teams were shown a sporting clip and were asked to decipher what was happening, hence the round's name. Examples included former cricket umpire Dickie Bird taking part in a photo opportunity with the Yorkshire players picked for the England cricket team, dressed in a chef's outfit and cooking them Yorkshire puddings, the annual Wife Carrying World Championships in Finland, and Scottish Youth Dance Company dancer Andy Howitt recreating Michael Owen's goal against Argentina in the 1998 FIFA World Cup as a ballet dance. *'Photo Opportunities' – Each team was shown a photo of a sportsperson in an unfamiliar pose and asked what the circumstances behind the photos were. Examples included swimmer Sharron Davies beside two men dressed as chips to promote National Chip Week, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson partnering with The Wombles for a campaign against litter in Manchester, and serial practical joker (and Eric Cantona lookalike) Karl Power joining the Manchester United team for a photo before a Champions League match in 2001. *'Photo-fit' – The teams were shown a picture of three sportspersons merged into one. The teams then had to guess who they were. Sometimes after the sportspersons were revealed, they were asked for the connection between them for a bonus point. On many occasions, Rory McGrath liked to joke that he recognised the person in the photo as an ex-girlfriend he'd previously had sexual encounters with. *'Author Author' – The teams would hear an extract from a sporting autobiography or interview and attempt to identify the author. Quotes included former Liverpool F.C. manager Gérard Houllier on why he turned down offers of international coaching, cricket umpire Shakoor Rana offering his opinion on Mike Gatting following an on-pitch argument, and a quote from athlete Roger Black's autobiography on his admiration of David Gower. *'Sing When You're Winning' – The teams had to complete the lyrics to a sporting song, poem or chant performed by football fans or the Barmy Army. A memorable moment from this round saw Chris Eubank complete a poem by Barnsley-supporting poet Ian McMillan, with the line "I'm having a laugh", when the line was "We'll be champions come May". One of the more memorable reactions to not winning this round occurred when Matthew Corbett and Sooty were guests and when denied points, Sooty went on to squirt Nick in the face with a water pistol. *'Handbags' – The teams had to work out the reasons for a rift between sportspersons. Examples of rifts included football team Peterborough United F.C. and Victoria Beckham over the rights to use the nickname "Posh", and athlete David Bedford and communications company InfoNXX over the 118 118 runners looking like him. *'Grandstand' – The teams were shown a bizarre multi-sport event and were asked to come up with events played in them. These included the Eskimo Olympics, the Naked Olympics and the Tough Guy Sports. *'The Treble' – The teams were shown three sportspersons and three items, and had to link each sportsperson to an item. *'The Beckham Challenge' – The teams were asked an on-the-buzzer question about David Beckham and his family. The first team to get the answer right received further bonus questions, similar to University Challenge. This was later changed to having separate questions for each team. Variants to this round included Sven-Mania (with questions about then-England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson), Wayne-Mania (with questions about Wayne Rooney) and Gaffer-Mania (with questions about football managers in general). *'Electronic Pencil' – The teams were shown a brief sporting clip, which was then paused, or a doctored photo of a sportsperson with items removed. The teams would use the electronic pencil to predict the direction of the athlete or the ball, or what the missing items were. The round was dropped after Series 2 but revived for the 100th show in 2001. *'Half-Time' – Each team was shown a clip of sporting footage with the sound removed and asked to provide their own dub over the clip. The teams were not awarded points for this segment, which was dropped after Series 2. Clips used included vintage footage of the Eton wall game (which David's team overdubbed as David Gower's Schooldays) and coverage of the O.J. Simpson low-speed police chase (with Alistair McGowan dubbing over it as Trevor Brooking and Alan Hansen on Match of the Day). *'Injury Board' – The teams would pick a number between 1 and 12. Behind each number was a sports person and another person or item. The teams attempted to work out how the latter injured the former. Examples included Newbury rugby club and some Vaseline (to which guest Julian Clary suggested "maybe there was sand in it") and Dennis Wise and a toilet seat. This round was also a parody of A Question of Sport, another BBC TV quiz show. *'Feel The Sportsman' – This was one of the most popular rounds of the show. The regular panellists had to try to identify a mystery guest, or their sporting notability, by touch whilst blindfolded. Guests subjected to a groping included Will Carling, Ashia Hansen, Henry Cooper, Lucinda Green, Geoff Capes, [Victor Ubogu, Jonah Lomu (who infamously appeared minutes after Chris Eubank had been goaded into calling him "a big poof"), Andy Fordham, Manc Union Paintball Team, Arsenal Women's Football Team (which Rory guessed right on the whistle), Aylesbury United F.C. in their infamous 1995 FA Cup duck conga goal celebration, a preserved Mick the Miller, the Subbuteo Gary Lineker, a cardboard cutout of Roy of the Rovers, Tony Bullimore, Stirling Moss and the aforementioned Karl Power. One notable variant in 2001 saw the regulars feeling an animal, having been shown a clip of Sven-Göran Eriksson on Italian television trying to identify animals by touch alone. David Gower and Jonathan Ross correctly guessed their animal (a zebra) but Gary Lineker and Rory McGrath failed to get theirs (an alligator – they failed to even touch it), with McGrath and Lineker removing their blindfolds and running off the set in panic. Occasionally, the guests would get to play in lieu of one of the regulars; a notable example was Sharron Davies, when the sportsman was her then husband Derek Redmond, whom she recognised. *'Claim To Fame' – This was introduced in 2005, and saw a sportsperson subjected to a line of questioning by the panel to determine their claim to fame. Mystery people included Paul Barber (a member of the gold medal winning British 1988 Olympic hockey team), Judy Grinham (gold medal winning 100m backstroke swimmer at the 1956 Olympics) and Tommy Gemmell, from the Celtic European Cup winning team of 1967. *'The Physical Challenge' – The teams were subject to displaying their physique on an exercise bike, tricycle or other exercise apparatus. The harder they pedaled, the faster an image appeared on screen, and the teams had to name the image before moving onto the next one. The team captain started off before a klaxon was sounded, then the regular sidekick would take over. The guests occasionally had a turn as well. *'The Name Game' – The regular sidekick had to give clues about a famous sportsperson for the other team members to guess. Variants included the sidekick having to draw out the clues, giving clues as to team names and performing impressions, or miming of the sportsperson. One famous incident in this round saw Rory get a point deduction for giving clues like "Same first name as Ian Rush, same last name as Ian Botham". Rory also got away with pretending Gary gave an answer when he didn't, by saying "That's right, speak up!". He also criticised the media hype over Ryan Giggs's winning FA Cup semi-final goal against Arsenal, by giving the clue "Welsh football player, scored what is probably the most overrated goal of the season". *'Sporting Vogue' – This was introduced in 2005. The team captain had to strike a famous pose by a sportsperson for their teammates to guess. *'School Sports Day' – This was shown only on the video-exclusive No Holds Barred episode, and was a pre-recorded segment featuring the regulars participating in a school sports day at King's College School as though it was covered by Grandstand, with Nick as the presenter and Gerald Sinstadt as the commentator. The events were the Egg-and-spoon race, the Three-legged race, the Egg Catching (with England cricketer Nasser Hussain throwing the eggs), the Obstacle course and the Sack race. Although Gary won the individual contest, David's team earned more points in the sports day and back in the studio were awarded one point for their efforts. *'Grand Prix' – This was shown only on the video-exclusive Full Throttle episode, and was another pre-recorded segment featuring the regulars participating in a six-lap race in "Formula 27 dinky cars" at Silverstone, using similar on-screen graphics to Formula 1 coverage on ITV at the time (even breaking into a "commercial break" for the No Holds Barred video near to the climax of the race, only to return just before Lee span off the track, which was ripping on ITV holding commercial breaks during key moments in the races), and a commentator imitating Murray Walker. Lee and David raced in Williams-coloured cars, while Gary and Rory raced in Jordan-coloured cars. Lee span out on the final lap and was disqualified. David won the race, winning 10 points for his team. Gary and Rory finished joint second, winning 5 points each, thus leading to Nick back in the studio declaring the race "a complete waste of a day". Tie-Breakers All episodes ending with a tie score or series ending with the number of episodes tied would finish with a tie-breaker. Sometimes, the tie-breaker referred to incidents from previously in the episode. These included: *A sports general knowledge question, sometimes from the quiz books endorsed by team captains Gary Lineker or David Gower. *An episode featuring England cricket captain Nasser Hussain ended with Nick tossing a coin and getting Nasser, who had previous bad luck with coin tosses, to call Heads or Tails. *A game of musical chairs featuring the regulars. *A mechanical bull or surfboard, which the panellists (usually Jonathan Ross versus Rory McGrath, or Jonathan versus his brother Paul in the surfboard example) ride, with the panellist who stayed on for the longest before falling off winning. *A game of round-the-table table tennis between all the panellists. *An arm-wrestling match between David and Gary. *A "pseudo sumo" match between David and Gary, with the two captains in inflatable sumo suits. *A race between David and Gary on tea trays with wheels, in honour of British Winter Olympic bronze medalist skeleton racer Alex Coomber *A "black ball fight" (first to pot the only ball) on a miniature snooker set. Guest captain Steve Davis was required to wear glasses which affected his depth perception due to him being a world champion snooker player. *A wrestling match in a pool of mashed potato between David and Gary, with the audience cheering for who they thought won. *A coconut shy-type game where, following a dressing room incident between Alex Ferguson and David Beckham where Ferguson reportedly kicked a football boot which hit Beckham in the head, all the panelists took turns to kick a football boot at cardboard cut-outs of Beckham's face. *A toy fishing game between Phil Tufnell and David Seaman. *A game of blow football between Boris Becker and Ian Wright. Category:Panel Game Category:Comedy Category:Themed Quiz Category:Sport Category:BBC Shows Category:Radio Category:Long-Running Category:1992 premieres Category:1994 endings Category:1995 premieres Category:2006 endings